HELENA — A District Court judge has ruled in favor of St. Peter’s Health regarding the termination of Dr. Thomas Weiner, who had worked at the hospital as an oncologist.
Weiner had worked as director of St. Peter's Health Cancer Treatment Center. In late 2020, he was dismissed from the hospital following several investigations by St. Peter’s into allegations of harming patients.
In response, Weiner filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the organization.
According to court documents, a St. Peter’s investigation found Weiner had misdiagnosed patients, was providing medication including strong opioids to patients outside the scope of his clinical privileges, and was not properly referring patients to other specialists.
In one instance, Weiner is accused of treating a patient for 11 years with chemotherapy for lung cancer. However, upon review, the patient was determined not to have lung cancer and “died as a result of said chemotherapy.”
Weiner denied the allegations in court and claimed he had been terminated due to his opposition to the St. Peter’s CEO.
On Thursday, Judge Mike Menahan granted St. Peter’s Health motion for summary judgment and denied Weiner’s motions for damages.
Menahan ruled that St. Peter’s Health leadership followed the law when terminating Weiner and correctly followed the peer-reviewed standards for addressing malpractice allegations.
In a statement, St. Peter’s Health said: “We are pleased with the court’s ruling. We stand by our commitment to provide safe, high quality care for our community. Going forward, we will continue our efforts to build a gold standard cancer care program and deliver the very best experience for our patients.
